ALIBABA-GROUP

The robotics industry is revolutionizing the world, and Alibaba A.I.
Labs is raising the stakes in this cutting-edge industry with the
announcement of launching service robots for the hospitality sector
starting in October. The news was made at The Computing Conference 2018,
which is scheduled for four days till September 22 in Hangzhou, China,
the site of Alibaba’s headquarters.

Alibaba A.I. Labs is the department leading consumer AI product
development at Alibaba.

Hotels have until now depended entirely on human labor. But the labs'
service robot — from delivering meals to taking laundry to guests
— demonstrates what guests can expect at hotels in the future. Guests
talk to the robot via voice command, touch and hand gesture, and its
responses are driven by AliGenie, the software that powers Alibaba A.I.
Labs’ smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

“We are excited by this tremendous development that is helping us bridge
the gap between guest needs and the response time that they expect.
Alibaba A.I. Labs’ robot is the next step in the evolution towards smart
hotels. In addition, it is solving pain points in the hotel sector, such
as enhancing service efficiency, with our leading AI technologies,” says Lijuan
Chen, General Manager of Alibaba A.I. Labs.
“The robot will be the
ultimate assistant for hotel guests who want everything quickly and
conveniently at their fingertips.”

The technology that drives the Labs’ service robot is state-of-the-art,
combining aluminum casing with multi-sensor data functionality and
parallel computing for lightning quick responses. It also includes a
semantic map, autonomous navigation system to identify obstacles,
communication systems to control elevators, and identity verification
via facial-recognition technology.

The robot’s height is less than one meter, while its walking speed
reaches one meter per second. After a trial at a hotel, Alibaba A.I.
Labs will assess its suitability for other areas, including hospitals,
restaurants and office services.

According to the International
Federation of Robotics
, the global market for service robots are on
the rise. The market is expected to grow from 20% to 25% from 2018 to
2020, while the sales forecast 2018-2020 indicates a cumulative volume
of around 27 billion U.S. dollars for the professional service segment.

Following the unveiling of the robot, Alibaba A.I. Labs also announced
Tmall Genie Auto, the latest initiative in smart mobility and expanding
the Tmall Genie ecosystem.

Tmall Genie is the most popular smart speaker in China, with over 5
million units sold since its launch in 2017. It ranks number three in
total shipments in the global smart-speaker market.

Alibaba A.I. Labs is dedicated to exploring the next-generation
human-and-computer interaction and turning novel user experience into
reality. The in-house R&D department focuses on the development of
innovative AI applications across Alibaba’s commerce ecosystem and
provides AI solutions to Alibaba’s clients and partners. With a
world-class research team, Alibaba A.I. Labs focuses on both theoretical
research and product commercialization in various areas, including
speech recognition, natural language processing, voice print
identification, deep learning, and computer vision. The Labs also
focuses on developing AI products for consumers, including Tmall Genie,
the first voice-controlled smart home assistant developed by the Labs.